By TCN News,
Kozhikode/New Delhi: Central minister E Ahmed has been removed from the post of the president of the Indian Union Muslim League, said the rebel leaders of the party. The leaders argued that Ahmed cannot be the president of the party as his parliamentary membership is on the label of a local party named Muslim League Kerala State Committee.
The group reportedly met in New Delhi on Sunday and took the decision to remove Mr Ahmed from the post. The new president of the IUML elected by the group is Prof Basheer Ahmed Khan, former Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Fathima Muzaffar, former convener of the Muslim League women’s wing in Tamil Nadu, is the general secretary. Abdul Sathar Mujahid, general secretary of the party in Andhra Pradesh, is the national vice-president. League leaders from 12 states attended the meeting held in New Delhi and two states extended support, the leaders reportedly said in a press conference. When asked about the Muslim League in Kerala, Prof Basheer Ahmed reportedly said that the party can cooperate with the new committee if it wished. Leaders of the League from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Gujarat and Punjab attended the meeting, Fathima Muzaffar reportedly said in the press conference held in New Delhi.
The rebel leaders reportedly informed that the meeting was held under the patronage of Muslim League Delhi unit president Margoob Hussain. But, there have been reports that Mr Hussain denied having taken part in the forming of the new committee. He said that the meeting was held to discuss the strengthening of the party.
Meanwhile, Muslim League national general secretary KM Khader Moideen reportedly said that Prof Basheer Ahmed Khan did not have even primary membership in the party. He termed the election of Mr Basheer Ahmed and the new committee as a political farce to create confusion in the time of election. He reportedly said in his statement that those who formed the new committee had already gone out of the League in different times. He added that such moves were part of the conspiracies of enemies to destroy the League in Kerala and other places.
Fathima Muzaffar, the general secretary of the new committee and daughter of former League MP from Tamil Nadu Mr AK Abussamad, was the convener of the women’s wing of the Muslim League in Tamil Nadu. When one among the three seats allotted to the League was taken off to solve the seat-sharing crisis between the DMK and the Congress, Ms Muzaffar came out openly against it. She criticized the state and national leadership of the League and demanded that the League should contest all the three seats on its own symbol, rather than the DMK symbol. She also threatened to contest if the party did not take efforts to regain its lost seat. The party was given the seat back by the DMK, but Ms Muzaffar was removed from her post.